Marsupial Gallery: A Pouchful of Cute

Kanga and Roo

Credit: Fir0002/Flagstaffotos

Kangaroos are the most famous of the pouched marsupial mammals. Here, a kangaroo joey peers out from its mother's pouch. Marsupials give birth to underdeveloped young and then nourish them in pouches for up to a year.

Koala Mama

A koala holds her sleeping joey. These adorable herbivores subsist on a diet of eucalyptus, spending hours a day eating. Time not spent snacking is usually passed by snoozing, owing to koalas' very low metabolic rate.

Baby Koala

Credit: Eric Veland

Baby koala at the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary.

Tasmanian Tigers

Credit: Smithsonian Institution Archives, 1906; Public Domain

Once the largest carnivorous marsupial in Australia and Tasmania, the Tasmanian tiger went the way of the dodo in 1936. Environmental pressure and hunting killed off Tasmanian tigers, also known as thylacines. The last died in a zoo in 1936, only months after the Tasmanian government extended protection to the species.

Endangered Bilby

The Bilby, a rabbit-sized marsupial, is endangered. To raise awareness and support for conservation, some Australians have recreated the Easter Bunny myth, claiming that in Australia, rabbits don't deliver candy — bilbies do!

Stephanie Pappas is a contributing writer for Live Science. She covers the world of human and animal behavior, as well as paleontology and other science topics. Stephanie has a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from the University of South Carolina and a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She has ducked under a glacier in Switzerland and poked hot lava with a stick in Hawaii. Stephanie hails from East Tennessee, the global center for salamander diversity. Follow Stephanie on Google+.

Stephanie Pappas, Live Science Contributor
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Kanga and Roo

Credit: Fir0002/Flagstaffotos

Kangaroos are the most famous of the pouched marsupial mammals. Here, a kangaroo joey peers out from its mother's pouch. Marsupials give birth to underdeveloped young and then nourish them in pouches for up to a year.

Koala Mama

A koala holds her sleeping joey. These adorable herbivores subsist on a diet of eucalyptus, spending hours a day eating. Time not spent snacking is usually passed by snoozing, owing to koalas' very low metabolic rate.

Baby Koala

Credit: Eric Veland

Baby koala at the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary.

Tasmanian Tigers

Credit: Smithsonian Institution Archives, 1906; Public Domain

Once the largest carnivorous marsupial in Australia and Tasmania, the Tasmanian tiger went the way of the dodo in 1936. Environmental pressure and hunting killed off Tasmanian tigers, also known as thylacines. The last died in a zoo in 1936, only months after the Tasmanian government extended protection to the species.

Endangered Bilby

The Bilby, a rabbit-sized marsupial, is endangered. To raise awareness and support for conservation, some Australians have recreated the Easter Bunny myth, claiming that in Australia, rabbits don't deliver candy — bilbies do!